At the end of the war, a number of treaties were drawn up at the palace of Versailles in France, as the victorious Allies dictated terms to the defeated Central Powers. The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, forced upon Russia when they fell out of the war in 1917, was repudiated, and Lenin’s Bolshevist government settled into a period of virtual isolationism, which would remain the status quo into the 1930s. Treaties were drawn up divesting Austria and Turkey of much of their territory. Based on Woodrow Wilson’s idea of “self-determination,” delineated in his 14 points, new countries were created for the various ethnicities in the Balkans, countries such as Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia. Poland, so long divided between Germany and Russia, was recreated as an independent state, and temporarily, at least, the most powerful in eastern Europe. Some territories containing ethnic Germans were given to these new nations; despite plebiscites in which the people voted to remain with the German nation, they were left as aliens under the new governments. This apparent hypocrisy rankled many Germans, and the stripping of long-held territories would fester in the minds of many, including one Adolf Hitler.
Nothing would rankle more than the Treaty of Versailles, though. One of the major contributing factors to the political revolution, which did even more than military defeat to bring about Germany’s collapse, was the British blockade, under which many starved, or came close to starvation. Lack of food is a powerful incentive for a nation to seek peace. But when the armistice was signed in November of 1918, the British blockade remained in force, and would remain until the final treaty was signed. This infuriated many Germans, and led to conditions of miserable chaos, in which another Communist revolution threatened to break out. 1919 very well could have seen the creation of another Bolshevist state, had not scattered units of the German army suppressed the revolutions that were brewing.
The Treaty of Versailles was completed in 1919, and the terms towards Germany were draconian, much harsher than towards the other Central Powers. Much of German territory was taken from them, given to Poland. German territory west of the Rhine was demilitarized, and remained so until Hitler retook it in 1936. Alsace and Lorraine were returned to the French. All the conquered lands in the east were lost. Massive reparation payments were demanded, which the war-ravaged German economy would not be able to pay, some estimated, until the 1980s. John Maynard Keynes, famous economist, argued that the reparations, which had been insisted upon by the French over the objections of the more benevolent Woodrow Wilson, would repress German economic recovery, and cause resentment that may spawn another World War in the future. It would not take long to prove him correct. Moreover, the entire German navy was confiscated by the British, though it was later scrapped by the German sailors at Scapa Flow, in a final act of defiance. Their army was reduced to 100,000 men, and forbidden to develop airplanes or tanks. The armed forces could be nothing more than a police force, though military authorities would soon invent clever ways to get around these harsh provisions.
Most irritating to Germans was the clause in the Treaty that laid all the blame for the war on German shoulders. This they felt, justifiably, was highly unjust, and painted them with a stigma they did not deserve. Hitler would continually point to this accusation as proof of wide-spread hatred of Germany during his rise in the 1920s and ‘30s. It was largely the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles that would lead to the political chaos that would pave Hitler’s path to power. If it had not been Hitler, though, it very well may have been another party who would have set out to rectify the perceived wrongs done to Germany in 1918 and ‘19.
Another key provision called for the creation of a new League of Nations, which would arbitrate international disputes, and prevent the breakout of another world war. This was the sticking point in the United States. The globalist-minded Wilson pushed hard for the ratification of the Treaty, and his beloved League, but conservative elements in the Senate rejected it, and the United States withdrew into happy isolation, from which only Franklin D. Roosevelt could pry them. The League of Nations proved an ineffective arbitrator, and was fully incapable of dealing with the crises that occurred thanks to the rise of Communist and Fascist powers. It would be fewer than 21 years after the armistice of 1918 before another world war would break out, as Germany sought to right the wrongs they believed had been done to them at the end of the Great War. To the 8 million dead of the First World War, which does not even include those lost to the influenza plague that broke out, must be added the next 40-50 million who perished in its continuance, a phenomena commonly known as the Second World War.
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